Amid a historic power outage in Northwest Indiana that has left 52% of Gary residents without power for nearly two frustrating weeks, daily life for people looks like filling up generators at the gas station, passing time watching DVDs in their cars or communing with neighbors over hot lunch at a local school that doubles as a community resource center.
The Chicago Sun-Times spoke with several Gary-area residents Friday about their experiences as they wait for electricity to be restored, debris to be cleared and life to return to normal.
Leticia Rimmer, 75, Gary
Because her apartment building has no power, Leticia Rimmer has made a makeshift home of her red Ford Fiesta for nearly two weeks.
Each day, she sits in her car listening to music, reading, doing word searches or watching old movies — “Star Trek,” “King Kong,” and “The Terminator” — on her portable DVD player. She buys sandwiches and ice from the gas station to keep her water and fruit cold. Then, she goes inside to sleep once the sun sets.
Rimmer said the severe weather that hit the city was “frightening.”
“We’ve had storms, but nothing compared to what happened to us the last 10 days,” she said. “It started getting dark, and then the rain came like it was never going to stop. Trees were hanging over my car. They landed on quite a few people’s cars.”
Rimmer said she has not heard from her landlord, and the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. took five days to come out to her area, but they keep delaying the date to restore electricity.
“It seems like it’s taking them forever to do anything,” she said. “Gary’s big enough to take care of all of us. There are many NIPSCO trucks. It just goes to show who comes first.”
Daniel Sheko, 31, Gary
As he filled up plastic gas cans for his generator, Daniel Sheko gave a glass-half-full response when asked how he was coping on day 11 without power.
“It could be worse,” said Sheko, who was in a hurry to get breakfast home to his wife and children, ranging in age from 5 weeks to 11 years. “We’re still pushing through it. The lights are out, but we were able to get a generator to get some power back to the house. We’re still eating every day. I’m still going to work.”
Though the Amazon warehouse where he works lost power for a few days, it didn’t prevent him from doing his job as a driver. And he has noticed other homes nearby gradually getting their electricity restored.
“We’ve been better than most,” he said. “To the people that are doing worse, keep your head up. It’s going to get better.”
Lavelle Taylor, 54, Gary
Lavelle Taylor hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in 11 days.
Every night since Gary lost power, he has felt the need to guard his $1,000 generator on his front porch. He said others have been getting stolen in the neighborhood.
“I’m literally sitting at my front door until 4 a.m.,” he said.
Then, he’ll shut the generator off, bring it inside and sleep for two hours until his wife and kids wake up at 6 a.m.
“If the power goes out, you don’t think, ‘My generator is out of gas,’” he said. “You think, ‘Somebody might have it.’”
Taylor said his house is the only one on the block that hasn’t had power restored. After a tree fell on his power line, utility workers told him they would fix the line; all he needed to do on his end was fix his bent weatherhead, which he took care of right away.
“They never came back,” he said.
“Every day we call them. They give us excuses: ‘It was an emergency last night.’”
Marisol Carrillo, 39, Gary
For Marisol Carillo, working from home during a nearly two-week power outage in the city has been tricky. Sometimes her office is Southlake Mall, other times it’s a McDonald’s.
Her 3-year-old son has also had to get used to life without his iPad.
“He’s spending more time outside, which I guess that’s really good,” said Carrillo, who works for a nonprofit and lives with her 62-year-old dad, Herminio. “It’s just disruptive to everyone’s routine.”
Carillo’s more pressing issue is her yard littered with fallen trees and a power line, which the utility company still hasn’t come to fix. And in the meantime, she has been racking up additional costs, from purchasing an $800 generator to eating out more often.
“It’s frustrating at this point,” she said. “At first I was like, ‘Why aren’t people talking about this?’ Why isn’t this national news?’ But now that it’s been 11 days, people are paying attention to it more.”
Carrillo also described Gary as a town that had already been abandoned and destroyed.
The storm just adds more destruction, she said.
Raymond Casillas, 35, New Chicago
A citywide emergency can really bring neighbors together.
That is a lesson Raymond Casillas has learned as he and others in his apartment building continue to live without power. Previously, he kept to himself, but now he has been helping a woman in his building by charging her phone in his car, sharing information about community resources and bringing her food.
He has been sourcing some meals from the combined River Forest High and River Forest Middle School in Hobart, which has been providing free lunch during the power outage. While eating, Casillas also takes the opportunity to charge his phone in the building, which regained power on Sunday.
Otherwise, he spends time at a friend’s house.
Back at home, Casillas said he had to toss all the food.
“I don’t know what’s going on with the city because no one has picked up our trash in over a week, and it stinks so badly,” he said.
Despite the difficult circumstances, Casillas said he appreciates how the community has come together, especially the schools.
“These people didn’t have to do this,” he said. “They chose to do this. They could have been just sitting at home.”
Cathy Doeing, 62, Lake Station
When a tree fell through her home, Cathy Doeing said she nearly lost all her possessions.
But her son-in-law braved the dangerous conditions to retrieve the ashes of her mother, brother and dog.
“He was determined,” said Doeing, who is now staying at her daughter’s home, which does not have power. “I started crying because it was amazing that he found [them] because that was really all I cared about.”
It will take about a year before Doeing can move back into her house. But she is keeping her spirits up by serving others as a cook at River Forest High School and Middle School. On Friday, she was preparing free meals for the community. She also said her co-workers have rallied around her.
“I don’t need pity,” she said. “My grandson’s alive, I’m alive, my kids are alive and that’s all that matters. And this community is the greatest community around. The people are just amazing.”
Jackson Hepp, 15, Lisa Hilton, 44, and Everly Hilton, 8, New Chicago
Jackson Hepp was home alone watching “Avengers: Endgame” when a severe storm ripped through his town last week.
First, the power flickered off. Then, he saw what he assumed to be a piece of siding from his trailer flying past his window.
“I had to wrangle up my two cats and dog to get into the bathroom,” he said. “That was a hard feat since they were all fighting.”
Once the storm passed, Hepp said, the sky was “green and hazy.”
“It was a little scary, but it wasn’t like the worst thing,” he said.
During the power outage, Jackson and his family made adjustments, staying with loved ones and eating free meals at River Forest High School and Middle School. They were supposed to celebrate his 10-year-old brother’s birthday at a local park, but it was cluttered with fallen trees. Instead, they went to a Mexican restaurant — one of few that were open.
Their power was restored on Thursday, but the start of school has been delayed until Aug. 27.
“I honestly wish that school wasn’t canceled because I’ve had absolutely nothing to do these past two weeks,” Jackson said.
He also had to get used to not using his phone as much.
“I have been trying to stay off my phone to the best of my ability to keep the battery life in case I have to contact friends and family,” he said. “It’s definitely an adjustment, but it isn’t that hard.”